Enzo, Here’s a “quick highlights” tour of the IBM z114 with hobbyist intentions. This information is thoroughly unofficial. Let’s first run through the highest operating system releases that the IBM z114 supports:
z/OS 2.2 (current is 2.5) z/VM 6.4 (current is 7.2) IBM z/VSE 6.2 (current from IBM) [Ask 21st Century Software about VSEn 6.3] z/TPF: officially sometime prior to 1.1.0.14 (current is 2022) Linux: up to SLES 12.x, up to RHEL 7.x Ubuntu no (Canonical started with z12), but current Debian 11 (“bullseye”) should still be OK Summary: With a couple exceptions (such as Debian Linux and z/VSE) current operating system releases are no longer compatible with the IBM z114. I don’t know if this fact is a “veto” or not, but it’s something to be aware of. z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, z/TPF, and VSEn are licensed operating systems. You’ll need to contact IBM (or 21st Century Software) and somehow obtain a license if you’d like to run any of those. Those releases (except for z/VSE 6.2 and VSEn 6.3) are also Withdrawn from Marketing, so they’d require a very special order if it’s even possible. z/OS and z/TPF require ECKD (FICON-attached) storage, and z/TPF’s storage requirements are slightly more involved than that simple statement. All the other operating systems support “SCSI” (FC-attached) storage. If your z114 includes ESCON ports then that’s another possible option, although there wasn’t a lot of physically small ESCON-attached storage. And ESCON storage is very old now, although it’d probably be inexpensive if you find it. The IBM z114 was the very last IBM Z server that (optionally) supported ESCON without a converter box. FICON-attached (and ESCON-attached) storage is directly attachable: no SAN switch required. You’re quite correct that the smallest FICON-attached storage that IBM ever made was the IBM DS6000 family (a.k.a. DS6800). If you can find one in working condition and suitably configured it’ll support up to 2 Gb/s FICON (“FICON 2”). As long as your IBM z114 has any sort of working FICON ports that should be fine since even the FICON Express8S adapters can negotiate down to 2 Gb/s. A minority of IBM z114 machines have only ESCON ports (or occasionally no storage ports at all if they were Coupling Facility machines), or the FICON ports aren’t working for some reason. That’d be bad, although if it has both ESCON and FICON that could be useful. (An ESCON-attached tape drive, for example.) Hypothetically you could start the z/OS Customized Offerings Driver (COD) Version 3.1 without FICON-attached storage available (from the HMC DVD typically), but that probably wouldn’t be too exciting except as a basic machine test. Speaking of which, does this z114 include a working HMC? z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, and VSEn also require at least one general purpose processor (CP) on the machine, subcapacity or otherwise. In other words the machine needs to be an A01 capacity model or higher for those operating systems. It was possible to configure a z114 without CPs. The z114 included a minimum of 8GB of usable memory, so memory shouldn’t be a problem for hobbyist purposes. Other engine types (IFLs, zIIPs, ICFs) are less interesting but can be nice to have, particularly the IFLs I’d say. If the seller says “Oh, it’s a M05” or “It’s a M10” (or 2818-M05/2818-M10), that probably refers to the hardware model. There is a M05 capacity model, i.e. z114 machines configured with 5 CPs set to the “M” subcapacity level. This M05/M05 can be confusing if you’re trying to figure out what you’re getting before you get it, so just try to clarify that point. The 2818-M05 (hardware model) is a single drawer machine, and the 2818-M10 is a dual drawer machine. For power draw/hobbyist purposes the single drawer configuration is likely preferable, although I suppose if you’re very careful and know what you’re doing you might be able to “field convert” a M10 to a M05. I also suppose that the M10 adds some redundancy, so if something breaks or is broken you’re slightly more likely to be able to soldier on. For FC-attached storage, officially (and probably technically also) you’ll need a suitable SAN switch in the loop. I see a used IBM 2498-B24 (SAN24B-4) SAN switch on eBay for $49 or best offer, and that’d probably get the job done very nicely since it supports all the relevant FC line speeds you could encounter. Although you have to hope for a high enough firmware level perhaps since the z114 was introduced after that SAN switch. If you embark on this project, good luck! Please keep us posted. — — — — — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cyber Security IBM zSystems and LinuxONE [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
